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Endangering billions of people because virologists prefer to be urbanite yuppies. Research so important that such a risk is accepted, but not so important tha

Endangering billions of people because virologists prefer to be urbanite yuppies. Research so important that such a risk is accepted, but not so important that it would make sense to simply pay virologists 5x more to live somewhere remote. This is madness.

rhacker 4y ago
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  Dune has been on my mind recently. In the universe of Dune, AI research brings humanity to the brink of ruin. After the rebellion against this, a commandment against creating AIs is added to the major religions. Those found guilty of creating or possessing thinking machines should be sentenced to immediate death. The demonstrable peril of such research is severe enough to justify that punishment. If virologists create and lose control of something that kills billions of people, wouldn't that justify an ultimate taboo against that kind of research? Maybe that's why virologists all clam up and circle the wagons when something sketchy happens. They say nobody but other virologists are qualified to question virology, but how can they be trusted to regulate themselves?
  - giantg2 4y ago
    The funny thing is, there are some virologists/scientists questioning if the lab was involved (just a minority though).
  - lukeschlather 4y ago
    On the other hand, it's easy to imagine that this sort of research is the only path to permanently curing Coronaviruses (and not just Coronaviruses but also Influenza.) As bad as this pandemic was if it was a required step on the road to permanently curing both Coronaviruses and Influenza... that's a no-brainer, it's well worth the pain, it will save billions of lives. Also if delaying this research delays such a hypothetical Influenza cure by 30 years, that will cost more lives than this pandemic did too.
  - notahacker 4y ago
    I'm reasonably confident that there's a more obvious explanation for virologists tending to back other virologists over homeopaths, politicians and contrarians frantically Googling basic virology knowledge in debates about viral transmission and protein structures than fear of Dune-inspired death sentences for every practitioner of their profession. Sure, and programmers all circle the wagons every time someone suggests that if the company recruits twice as many people to the team it'll get the project done at least twice as quickly. Maybe it's because they're scared of the employment implications of senior management knowing best :D Back in reality, half the evidence presented in favour of the 'lab leak' hypothesis is in fact the long list of actual lab leaks virologists have identified and blamed virologists for...
  - benibela 4y ago
    Or Anathem by Neal Stephenson They do not just ban AI, but almost all experimental research. All the researchers are isolated in monasteries and only get visited once each decade/century.

rhacker 4y ago

MichaelCollins 4y ago
Dune has been on my mind recently. In the universe of Dune, AI research brings humanity to the brink of ruin. After the rebellion against this, a commandment against creating AIs is added to the major religions. Those found guilty of creating or possessing thinking machines should be sentenced to immediate death. The demonstrable peril of such research is severe enough to justify that punishment. If virologists create and lose control of something that kills billions of people, wouldn't that justify an ultimate taboo against that kind of research? Maybe that's why virologists all clam up and circle the wagons when something sketchy happens. They say nobody but other virologists are qualified to question virology, but how can they be trusted to regulate themselves?
- giantg2 4y ago
  The funny thing is, there are some virologists/scientists questioning if the lab was involved (just a minority though).
- lukeschlather 4y ago
  On the other hand, it's easy to imagine that this sort of research is the only path to permanently curing Coronaviruses (and not just Coronaviruses but also Influenza.) As bad as this pandemic was if it was a required step on the road to permanently curing both Coronaviruses and Influenza... that's a no-brainer, it's well worth the pain, it will save billions of lives. Also if delaying this research delays such a hypothetical Influenza cure by 30 years, that will cost more lives than this pandemic did too.
- notahacker 4y ago
  I'm reasonably confident that there's a more obvious explanation for virologists tending to back other virologists over homeopaths, politicians and contrarians frantically Googling basic virology knowledge in debates about viral transmission and protein structures than fear of Dune-inspired death sentences for every practitioner of their profession. Sure, and programmers all circle the wagons every time someone suggests that if the company recruits twice as many people to the team it'll get the project done at least twice as quickly. Maybe it's because they're scared of the employment implications of senior management knowing best :D Back in reality, half the evidence presented in favour of the 'lab leak' hypothesis is in fact the long list of actual lab leaks virologists have identified and blamed virologists for...
- benibela 4y ago
  Or Anathem by Neal Stephenson They do not just ban AI, but almost all experimental research. All the researchers are isolated in monasteries and only get visited once each decade/century.